Low glycemic index bread with barley flour

A low glycemic index bread made with barley flour, one of the two cereals with a lower glycemic index together with whole oats.

Perfect for both breakfast and savory dishes, this low-glycemic bread is super easy to make.
And it is ideal for people with high blood sugar and high cholesterol problems.

BREAD WITH BARLEY FLOUR: PROPERTIES

In fact, barley contains beta-glucans, polysaccharides typical of some whole grains that have the property of lowering cholesterol.
They also help intestinal regularity AND help make barley flour one of the flours with a low glycemic index to be preferred in the diet.

To make this bread we need a quality wholemeal flour, which has two important characteristics.
Be it stone ground and organic.

Stone grinding makes the gluten more homogeneous and digestible than industrial flours with faster and coarser mechanical processing, because it grinds the grains evenly.

For this reason, choosing the flour is important to prepare a low glycemic index bread complete with all the micronutrients of the grain cereal (including beta-glucans).

Obviously there are many types of quality durum wheat flours with which we can prepare delicious bread products and tasty desserts, as well as nutritious flours produced thanks to other cereals.

My choice fell on a stone-ground and organic barley flour that I will link between the ingredients.

Let’s see the recipe (without oil!).

LOW GLYCEMIC INDEX BREAD WITH BARLEY FLOUR

A long time ago, barley bread was prepared without adding other flours.
And until the 1950s it was widespread in Sardinia, particularly in the hinterland, precisely because this cereal is capable of growing in mountain areas. As it is not really suitable for baking because the dough is less soft than bread with other flours, barley bread was generally consumed by the poorest families.

Now, there are recipes to bring to the table a perfect low glycemic index bread based on barley flour, thanks to the double leavening. With these assumptions, here are the ingredients of today’s recipe valid for about 5 or 6 loaves.